You do terror at night, and expect business during day: EAM S. Jaishankar on why India is not engaing in bilateral cricket contest with Pakistan

Minutes after Jay Shah, President of Asian Cricket Council informed that Team India will not travel Pakistan to play T20I Asia Cup 2023, and the continental tournament will shift to neutral venues, Pakistan cricket fraternity rolled over their sleeves and started slamming their Indian counterpart.

Miffed with Jay Shah’s decision, Pakistan Cricket Board Chief Ramiz Raja slammed the ACC president for giving such a statement without any consultation with other stakeholders of the Asian Cricket Council and Pakistan, itself. “The overall impact of such statements have the potential to split the Asian and international cricketing communities, and can impact Pakistan’s visit to India for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 and future ICC Events in India in the 2024-2031 cycle,” read PCB’s official statement.

Meanwhile, an old clip of India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has resurfaced online where he is giving celerity on the reason behind India not engaging in any sorts of bilateral contest with Pakistan.

While speaking at a think tank Council event on Foreign Relations in New York on September 26, 2019, the minister said, “It’s very difficult in real life to separate issues. Pakistan has carried out some grave activities against India. Terror attack on our air base, attack on our military camp and several suicide bombings which took the life of so many of our army personnel. If dominant narrative of relationship is terrorism, bombing, and violent attack, and then you say, ‘okay, guys, now tea break, let’s go and play cricket’. That’s a very hard narrative to sell,” Mr. Jaishankar head telling the moderator.

The Indian minister further suggested Pakistan to not walk on the belief of ‘Doing terror at night and ask for business in the day.’ “And the one message I don’t want to give is, you do terrorism by night and it’s business as usual by day. And, unfortunately, that’s the message I would give if I were to follow this one (allow cricket matches between India and Pakistan,” he added in that conversation.

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Although, a bilateral contest between two arch-rivals seem far away from reality, but their clash in the ICC events has been a major success. Both the teams have already faced each twice in a year as they clash two times in recently concluded T20 Asia Cup 2022, in United Arab of Emirates. Meanwhile, India vs Pakistan clash is set to enthral cricket fans as per the T20 World Cup 2022 fixture, on October 23 in Melbourne.

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